Sermon Tone Analysis

Daniel 8:1-27

 

From chapter 8 to the end of the Book of Daniel, the text is written in Hebrew, for the major emphasis of these chapters is God's plan for the nation of Israel in the end times.

* From 2:4-7:28, the book is written in Aramaic because the emphasis in those chapters is on the Gentile kingdoms in history and prophecy.

* It was the nation of Israel that God chose to be the vehicle of His revelation and redemption in the world.

* Through the Jewish people came the knowledge of the one true and living God, the written Scriptures and, most important of all, the Savior, Jesus Christ.

* This vision is going to be about four kings that play an important role in the life of the nation Israel.

*Daniel's Vision*

 

1 *In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first.

*2* And I saw in the vision; and when I saw, I was in Susa the capital, which is in the province of Elam.

And I saw in the vision, and I was at the Ulai canal.

*

 

Susa was the capital of the Medo-Persian kingdom.

So this gives us the clue that this vision is starts in the second kingdom out of the four we had studied in Daniel.

3* I raised my eyes and saw, and behold, a ram standing on the bank of the canal.

It had two horns, and both horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last.

4 I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward.

No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power.

He did as he pleased and became great.

*

 

This is the Persia Kingdom led by King Cyrus.

* Cyrus and his armies did indeed "push westward and northward and southward" and defeat their enemies, taking Libya, Egypt, all of Asia Minor and moving as far as India, creating the largest empire ever in the ancient east until the time of Alexander the Great.

* Once his conquests were consolidated, he attacked Babylon and took it in 539.

* Cyrus was kind to those he took captive and permitted the Jews to return to their land to rebuild the temple and restore the nation (Isa.

44:28; Ezra 1:1-3; 6:2-5).

* He also allowed them to take with them the sacred vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple (Ezra 1:5-11).

5* As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth, without touching the ground.

And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes.

6 He came to the ram with the two horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, and he ran at him in his powerful wrath.

7 I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns.

And the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him.

And there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power.

8 Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven.

*

 

In Nebuchadnezzar's image, Greece was depicted as the thigh of brass (2:32, 39), and in Daniel's vision described in chapter 7, Greece was a swift leopard with four heads.

* Now Daniel sees Greece as an angry goat who runs so swiftly his feet don't even touch the ground!

* The large protruding horn represents Alexander the Great who led the armies of Greece from victory to victory and extended his empire even beyond what Cyrus had done with the Persian army.

* But the horn was broken, for Alexander died in Babylon in June 323, at the age of thirty-three, and his vast kingdom was divided among four of his leaders, symbolized by the four horns that grew up (7:4-7; 11:4).

9* Out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land.

*

 

As we have already seen, after the death of Alexander the Great (the "notable horn," v. 5), his empire was divided into four parts with four of his officers taking control (v.

8).

* Out of one of those horns a "little horn" appears who becomes a great leader, and this is Antiochus Epiphanes, the ruler of Syria from 175 to 163 B.C. and known as one of the cruelest tyrants in history.

* Antiochus gave himself the name "Epiphanes," which means "illustrious, manifestation," for he claimed to be a revelation of the gods.

* He even had the word /theos /(god) put on the coins minted with his features on it, and his features on the coins came to look more and more like the Greek god Zeus.

* The glorious land is the land of Israel.

Remember Daniel a Jew is writing.

*10 It grew great, even to the host of heaven.

And some of the host and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them.

*

 

The term “host” (ṣābā’) means “army” but frequently is used figuratively to designate the angelic servants of God (1 Kgs 22:19) and the celestial bodies (Deut 4:19).

* While the term here refers directly to the stars, it is as they symbolize the saints (interpreted in Daniel 8:24).

* This king (the little horn) will become so arrogant that he is willing to assert himself against the saints of God and even against God himself.

* In 168 B.C. Antiochus sent an army of 20,000 men to level Jerusalem.

* They entered the city on the Sabbath, murdered most of the men, and took the women and children as slaves.

* The remaining men fled to the army of the Jewish leader Judas Maccabeus.

*11 It became great, even as great as the Prince of the host.

And the regular burnt offering was taken away from Him, and the place of His sanctuary was overthrown.

*

Da 8:11 (NASB) *It even magnified /itself/ to be equal with the Commander of the host; and it removed the regular sacrifice from Him, and the place of His sanctuary was thrown down.

*

 12* And a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression, and it will throw truth to the ground, and it will act and prosper.

*

12* And a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression, and it will throw truth to the ground, and it will act and prosper.

*

 But Antiochus wasn't satisfied, so he issued an edict that there would be one religion in his realm and it wouldn't be the Jewish religion.

* He prohibited the Jews from honoring the Sabbath, practicing circumcision, and obeying the levitical dietary laws, and he climaxed his campaign on December 14, 168, by replacing the Jewish altar with an altar to Zeus and sacrificing a pig on it!

* Any Jew found possessing a copy of the Law of Moses was slain.

* Jerusalem was eventually delivered by the courageous exploits of Judas Maccabeus and his followers, and on December 14, 165 B.C., the temple was purified, the altar of burnt offering restored, and Jewish worship once again restored.

* It is this event that the Jewish people celebrate as "The Feast of Lights" or Hanukkah (see John 10:22).

* Antiochus went mad while in Persia, where he died in 163.

When Antiochus stopped the daily sacrifices in the temple and substituted pagan worship, this was called "the abomination that makes desolate" ("the transgression of desolation," Dan.

8:13).

* This concept is found in 9:27; 11:31; and 12:11, and is used by Jesus in Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14.

* What Antiochus did was a foreshadowing of what the Antichrist will do when he puts his image in the temple and commands the world to worship him (2 Thes.

2; Rev. 13).

* Daniel 8:13 and 11:31 refer to Antiochus, and the other references to Antichrist, of whom Antiochus is a picture.

13* Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one who spoke, "For how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled underfoot?"

14 And he said to me, "For 2,300 evenings and mornings.

Then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state."

*

 

The two angels (8:13-14; "saints") spoke together about this matter and from their conversation, Daniel learned the prophetic timetable.

* Between the desecration of the temple and its cleansing and restoration 2,300 evenings & mornings would pass.

* The Hebrew text reads "2,300 evenings and mornings," because burnt offerings were sacrificed at the temple each morning and each evening of every day.

* But does this mean 2,300 days or 1,150 days, 2,300 divided by two?

And what date or event signals the beginning of the countdown?

* It is either just over six years or slightly over three years.

* The six-year advocates begin with 171 B.C, when Antiochus deposed the true high priest.

* Subtract six years and this takes you to 165 when Judas Maccabeus defeated the enemy and reconsecrated the temple.